1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a pointing device that controls the motion of a cursor moving on a screen, and more particularly, to a pointing device that changes the cursor moving speed in accordance with an operating force.
2. Related Art
When an operator operates a pointing device, the moving distance, the direction, and the speed of a cursor are generally adjusted by the magnitude of a force applied to an operation body of the pointing device.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-34644 discloses a pointing device that changes a function to be used for each magnitude range of a force applied to the pointing device and determines cursor moving speed according to the applied force. A previously set function is used as a reference function that reflects a signal which generates the cursor moving speed in X and Y directions.
However, in the pointing device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 9-34644, in the determination of cursor moving speed, the reference function is configured to depend on only the magnitude of an operating force in the X-Y plane direction on an X-Y plane, and a component in the perpendicular (Z axis) direction was not reflected.
That is, if the same operating force was applied to the pointing device in the X-Y plane direction, a cursor was moved on a computer screen at the same speed when the operation body was operated so as to be strongly pushed in the perpendicular (z axis) direction as when the operation body was operated so as to be lightly touched.
For this reason, for example, an operator (beginner), who is poor at operating, does not know about the increase and decrease of the force applied to the operation body. Accordingly, a beginner may operate the pointing device with an extremely small or large force. In addition, since it is typical that a beginner feels that the cursor moving speed is high during the operation, there is a problem in that it is very difficult to move a cursor to a target position.
Meanwhile, an operator (expert), who is good at operating, can operate the operation body by lightly touching the operation body without applying an excessive force. However, a cursor moving speed, which is felt to be high by a beginner, may be felt to be low by an expert, and the expert cannot instantly move the cursor to a target position. For this reason, an expert may be often dissatisfied.
Since respective operators have different habits as described above, there has been a limit on obtaining operability that could satisfy all operators.
These and other drawbacks exist.